For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (II Timothy 4:6-8).
On May 16, 2012, I had the honor and privilege of preaching/teaching at Gospel Light Baptist Church, my family’s home church since July 2011. My pastor’s wife sent me a text message earlier in the day asking could I possibly fill in for the pastor as he was sick and would not be able to be in church that evening. Having been roughly ten years since I have had the opportunity to fill a pulpit, I was unsure about what to present and even more unsure about my ability to present a message in a manner that would not only be biblically sound but practical.
The next few posts will be taken from the teaching presented on May 16th. This will be a five part series aimed at teaching God’s divine structure for our lives. When I first began working on this message I had no idea the direction that God would take me. As I began to research the topic of the message I began to understand that oftentimes in my own life – and usually about the time when it seems that everything is coming apart – I have neglected certain aspects of my life and have placed other things higher on my priority list than they are on God’s. When we are focused on the here and now it is extremely easy to put things as a priority that would not even be considered as important if we were to see the big picture.
There are four additional installments of this series. Part 2 explains why we need to make God the top priority in our lives. In part 3 we will explore why it is important to place our spouse (or family if we are not married) as the second priority in our lives. Part 4 explains the importance of children within the home and finally, Part 5 explains the reason why our vocation must not come before God, our spouse, or our children.
It all begins in what we consider success. According to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, success is defined as “a degree or measure of succeeding, a favorable or desired outcome, the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence.” With this in mind, there have been many scams claiming on how to help us attain the successful life that is supposedly at our fingertips. Walk down any self-help aisle of your favorite bookstore, or do a search at Amazon or other book sellers on the Internet and what you find is that for around $20.00 you can buy a book that will tell you how to become wealthy, or lose weight, or to even gain popularity.
We see what a successful life means in the eyes of this world in which we live by the last portion of the definition of the word success – the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence. How many people have sacrificed their families, their relationship with God, and in some cases their eternal soul in order to achieve the world’s view of success? Instead of focusing on the big picture, they simply see the world around them and focus on the things that this world tells us is important or what it takes to be successful. In my own life, I thought that an advanced degree, a job with a lot of promotion potential, a large house, money in the bank, and all the related things were important and would define me as being successful; I was even working 16 to 18 hour workdays trying to attain those things I thought would define me as being successful.
Several times we are warned in the Bible not to look for these earthly treasures, but to seek the treasures in Heaven – you could restate it by saying we should not seek the accolades of men or to be successful according to how the world defines success; instead, we should seek the approval of God upon our lives. God’s word clearly sets the order as to how we can achieve the ultimate success – hearing God tell us “well done thou good and faithful servant…” (Matthew 25:21). What was it that gave the apostle Paul the ability to boldly claim that he had fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness (II Timothy 4:7)? God actually has such a plan to help us live productive and successful lives according to his plan for prioritizing all that we do so that we, also, may have such confidence. All we have to do is to recognize this order that God has set before us and allow it to become the way we live our lives.
